“2046”: The Best of 2005 (so far)?

"2046": The Best of 2005 (so far)?

An early entry for one of the best movies of the year is Wong Kar-wai’s “2046”, which I watched again this week at the Tribeca Film Festival after seeing an earlier cut at Cannes last year. The film (which will be released by Sony Classics on August 5th), is simply a stunning work of art.

“If ‘In the Mood For Love’ was a love story,” explained star Tony Leung while introducing the film Thursday night, “Then ‘2046’ is a story about love.” In the follow-up to “In The Mood”, Leung returns as a writer, who meets a young prostitute (played by Zhang Ziyi) in hotel room 2046, the same room where he had an affair with Su Lizhen (Maggie Cheung) in the previous film. Reflecting on love and loss, the writer composes a futuristic story entitled, “2046.”

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“I was like the writer in the film,” Wong Kar-wai explained during a press conference in Cannes last year after the delayed premiere, referring to Tony Leung’s character in “2046.” “Like the character in the film the more I tried to get away from it, things kept reminding me…” He continued, “The film is actually a portrait of a person who is trying to get away from his past — the more you try to forget it, the more you remember it, maybe one day the past or the memory will leave you.” The title marks the year 50 years after the handover of Hong Kong back to China. “How you deal with your past (is) not only about a person, it can be a city, it can be about anything,” Wong summed up.